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By Coach DP Daigle
Rock-A-Chaw Relays
Hey y'all, ready for the run around?
This week I was Meet Director at the Rock-A-Chaw Relays. Most folks have no clue how much goes into planning a track meet and how hard it is. Just so you know, I employed the help of 35 adult volunteers and 14 student athletes to pull this thing off. Not to mention hiring a timing company as well as coordinating to have snow balls on site. It's crazy.
Anyway, we couldn't have asked for better weather and the day ran very smoothly. It was really like two track meets in one as we had a high school division and a middle school division. The winners of each event all received an event champion t-shirt as well.
You know me, I care about the team first so let's look at the team standings at the end of the day.
For high school girls West Harrison won the day with 62.5 points and Saint Patrick was runner-up with 44 points. Rounding out the field in this order were Mt. Carmel, Our Lady Academy, McLaurin, and Dominican.
Saint Stanislaus (SSC) won the high school boys division with 74.5 points while West Harrison finished as runner-up with 53 points. Rounding out the field were St. Patrick followed by McLaurin High.
Middle school girls - William Coller Middle School was your champion with 49 points. St. Patrick came in second with 23. The rest of the field in order was Mt. Carmel, Our Lady Academy (OLA), McLaurin, and then Dominican.
The William Coller boys finished first too completing the sweep, they scored 57 points. SSC was runner up with 38. Rounding out the field were St. Patrick, and McLaurin.
This was a relay meet, so we had field events, the 3200M for high school, all the standard relays plus a Sprint Medley Relay (SMR) and a Distance Medley Relay (DMR).
I'll start with the high school performances. Aniyah Martin of West Harrison won the long jump with a leap of 15' 11." Linda Mustered of Saint Patrick finished second with a jump of 15' 3."
Jamal Miller of West Harrison set a new meet record with his jump of 19' 0." Ja'Kobe Cameron of SSC was second with a jump of 18' 5."
Over at high jump, St. Patrick's Makenzie Stenum won the day clearing 4' 10" while Ella Mauterer of Mt. Carmel took second at 4' 4." At boys high jump West Harrison's Mark Ancar cleared 5' 8" to win and SSC's Grant May was second at 5'4."
OLA dominated girls' pole vault with Grace Bradford winning over 8' 0" and Hutton Scharp clearing 7' 6." SSC's Christian Kitto won the boys competition vaulting 10 feet. Second place honors went to Tyler Gerretse of Saint Patrick with a vault of 9' 0."'
We had a stadium record fall at girls' discus. Alexis Morris of West Harrison launched the disc 121' 9." Her teammate Victory Hill was second in that competition, throwing 89' 4." SSC's Ryan Tyler won the boys competition throwing 116' 2" and Jacob Hanlon of SSC got second with a throw of 99 feet even.
Ryan Fitzpatrick of Saint Patrick threw the shot 39' 11.5" to win the event and Ryan Tyler of SSC was close behind with a throw of 39' 5." At the girls shot put competition, West Harrison went 1, 2 again. Alexis Morris was the event champion and Victoria Hill was second. They threw 34' 5.5" and 31' 10" respectively.
Triple jump was the last event to get started. On the girls' side, Saint Patrick's Leila Ransonet won with a jump of 31' 0.5." Second place honors went to West Harrison's Aniyah Martin who marked 30' 7." At the boys' pit, Jamal Miller was the event champion - he went 37' 2" while Saint Patrick's Jaden Turner jumped 36' 3."
The first running event of the day was the 3200M Relay or 4x8. Mt. Carmel took the honors in a time of 10:53.21 with Saint Patrick right behind them at 10:53.58. Saint Patrick's boys set a new meet record in the 4x8, clocking in at 9:05.83, the old mark was set by SSC at 9:10.56. SSC was second in the 4x8 at 9:23.36.
Next came the 3200 Meter Run. Teammates from Mt. Carmel led the way with Katherine Huval in first at 14:17.62 and Anne Zimmerman right behind her at 14:20.41. Rock-A-Chaw Kyle Capo won the boys race in 11:19.29, Saint Patrick's Byron Shepard was second in a time of 11:24.23
The Sprint Medley Relay was the next event. It's not run a whole ton so most folks don't know about it. The first two legs run a 100M, the second leg runs a 200M, and the anchor runs a 400M. So it makes for 2 trips around the track. West Harrison beat out Mt. Carmel in the race, they ran 2:05.79 and 2:10.38 respectively. West Harrison also won the boys SMR in a time of1:45.85. SSC was second in a time of 1:49.61.
Next was the 4x2. West Harrison won this one as well in a time of 1:52.31. Saint Patrick took second in 1:54.43. On the boys' side West Harrison edged out SSC, those teams ran 1:36.85 and 1:37.63 respectively.
The next event may have been the highlight of the day - The Throwers Relay. These young men and women looked focused on the line, and they were about to run a 4x1. We let the boys and girls run together and filled up all 6 lanes of our track. SSC's boys took the victory.
The next race was the Distance Medley Relay or DMR. It consists of a 1200M run, followed by a 400M, then an 800M and finally a mile or 1600M. Mt. Carmel took the honors here in 14:35.33. Dominican ran 14:52.17 to take second place. St. Patrick won the boys' DMR with SSC taking second. The times were 12:27.12 and 12:53.75 respectively.
The 4x1 was the penultimate event in this format. West Harrison continued their sprint relay dominance and won in a time of 55.28. St. Patrick was right there on the line finishing in 55.29. The Boys race was won by Saint Stanislaus in a time of 46.71. The Hurricanes from West Harrison came in second posting a time of 47.62.
The final event of the night was the 4x4. The Irish from Saint Patrick took the honors with a time of 4:39.43. West Harrison was your runner-up with a time of 4:46.33. West Harrison's boys won the 4x4 in a time of 3:44.60. Saint Patrick took second with a time of 3:51.79.
Now it's time to go back through the results of the Junior High or Middle School Meet. The middle schoolers didn't do the 3200M or the medley relays - so their day was a little shorter. Let's start with the field events. Payton Groetsch of Mt. Carmel won the long jump with her jump of 14' 1." Mt. Carmel's Ali Oliveri was second, right behind her, at 14'0."
Cameron Deflanders of William Colmer Middle school set a new Middle School Stadium Record at long jump with his jump of 17' 9.5." The previous record was held by SSC's Kyle Stegall, he jumped 17' 9." Jaden Brown from McLaurin finished second with a jump of 16 feet even.
Taylor Fayard from Saint Patrick won the girls' high jump clearing 4' 2" and Ninoshka Rodriguez from Colmer took second at 4' 0." Colmer went 1,2 on the boys' side of high jump with Jaylon Fornett and Jarvis Sellers both clearing 4' 8."
Anna Kat Thriffiley set a new Middle School Stadium Record with her jump of 7' 0." Her teammate Taylor Jernigan came in second clearing 6' 6." Saint Patrick's Colin Cloud also broke the Middle School Record with his 9 foot vault. His teammate Chris Owens took second with a jump of 7' 0."
Over at girls' disc William Colmer was dominating. They went 1, 2 with the duo of LaTonya Funches and Diamond Moore. Their marks were 68' 7" and 47' 1" respectively. At boys' discus Colmer's Andre Briggs won the day with a toss of 89' 8." Second place honors went to Hunter Holland of SSC, he threw it 87' 2."
Andre Briggs from Colmer also won the shot put competition. He threw it 38' 10." SSC's Gus Simpson took second with a toss of 29' 8.5." Keniah Cannon from McLaurin won the girls competition with a throw of 23' 1.5" while LaTonya Funches of William Colmer took second with a mark of 22' 6.5."
Now back to the track races. In the girls 4x8 Colmer won setting a new record at 12:08.97. The Irish from SPCHS were second in a time of 12:37.05. Saint Patrick won the boys' race and set a new stadium record, they ran it in 10:17.50. William Colmer's relay team was second finishing at 11:22.72.
The next race was the 4x2. Colmer won this one in 2:00.50. MT. Carmel was second in 2:04.55. On the boys side, Colmer took first in 1:42.29 while SSC got second clocking in at 1:50.08.
Colmer continued to dominate the track races in the 4x1. THeir girls won it in 58.87. OLA took second in this event with a time of 59.80. The Colmer boys ran 50.60 to win the 4x1 over second place finishers SSC in 51.48.
The final event was the 4x4. On the girls side Colmer won setting a new stadium middle school record. Their time was 4:51.38. Second place honors went to Mt. Carmel with a time of 4:59.52. William Colmer won the boys' side too in a time of 4:07.09. Second place honors here went to Saint Patrick with a time of 4:24.06.
All in all it was a great meet with great weather. There were kids competing hard at every event. It was a great day.
See y'all at the next meet!